Ho Chi Minh City: Many school buildings are seriously degraded

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, there are currently about 125 educational facilities in the city with seriously degraded construction items, posing a safety risk to students and teachers.

Implementing the direction of Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc on September 22, 2025, the Department of Education and Training has conducted statistics and has had a specific report on the general review and consultation on the overall plan for facilities and teaching equipment at all public schools in the city.

After the merger, in the 2025-2026 school year, Ho Chi Minh City will have 3,528 schools and 2,528,789 students from preschool to high school, an increase of 39,632 students compared to the 2024-2025 school year.

Study place of students at An Son Primary School, Long Nguyen ward, Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the assessment of the Department of Education and Training, although the number of schools is large, it is not commensurate with the development of the new Ho Chi Minh City. The current situation still has some shortcomings such as: The number of schools and classrooms is still not enough to meet the demand for learning places for children of the right age in the city, the number of students per class is still high and not guaranteed according to the school regulations, the pressure and lack of learning places in each commune, ward and special zone in Ho Chi Minh City is not uniform, some places lack a lot of classrooms but there are also places with almost no or little demand, especially in areas and areas that are rapidly urbanizing, concentrating on export processing zones and industrial parks with high mechanical population growth rates.

The number of classrooms is not enough to organize 2 sessions/day according to the ratio prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training for all levels of education. Many schools and classrooms have been invested in and built beyond their useful life and are increasingly degraded or built according to old, outdated standards that are no longer safe and do not meet the needs of use and the requirements of the current educational program.

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training as of June 2025, in Ho Chi Minh City before the merger, there were 297 classrooms/10,000 people (it is expected that by the end of 2025, before the merger, there will be 300 classrooms/10,000 people of school age from 3 to 18 years old). However, this ratio is not equal between levels of education: From 3 to under 6 years old, there are 478 classrooms, from 6 to under 11 years old, there are 262 classrooms, from 11 to under 15 years old, there are 237 classrooms, from 15 to 18 years old, there are 257 classrooms.

After the merger, Ho Chi Minh City only reached 277 classrooms/10,000 school-age people (from 3 to 18 years old), of which Binh Duong province (old) reached 200/classrooms/10,000 people, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province (old) reached 316/classrooms/10,000 people and Ho Chi Minh City (before the merger) reached 297/classrooms/10,000 people.

The number of classrooms is not enough to organize 2 sessions/day according to the ratio prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training for all levels of education. Many schools and classrooms have been invested in and built beyond their useful life and are increasingly degraded or built according to old, outdated standards that are no longer safe and do not meet the needs of use and the requirements of the current educational program. Currently, there are about 3,253 classrooms and subject rooms that need maintenance and repair...

The Department of Education and Training said the main reason is that these items were built a long time ago, past their useful life (over 20 years), so they are severely degraded, small repairs are ineffective, and waste investment capital.

The Department of Education and Training proposed that the City People's Committee consider allocating additional funding to communes, wards, and special zones to continue to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the level of deterioration of the works, focusing on advising and assigning specialized units to act as investors to organize bidding to select units to implement appropriate and timely solutions and repair and maintenance plans to ensure the quality of the works, and at the same time assigning responsibility to educational institutions to regularly perform periodic maintenance to avoid deterioration.

For seriously degraded construction items that pose a risk of insecurity, the Department proposes that the City assign communes, wards, and special zones to proactively prepare proposals to report to the Department of Finance on the need for investment in replacement construction, major repairs, and reinforcement of existing works to submit to competent authorities for consideration of budget allocation for early implementation to ensure safety for students and teachers.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/giao-duc/tp-ho-chi-minh-nhieu-hang-muc-cong-trinh-truong-hoc-xuong-cap-nghiem-trong-i784618/